Big questions about hospital generator failures

As New York begins to regroup after Sandy, one of the big questions is why backup generators at NYU Langone Medical Center failed. This isn't the first time hospital generators have failed at a NYC hospital in an emergency. Obviously much more needs to be written on this.

Mount Sinai was one of the hospitals receiving patients. It did a very good job keeping the public updated via its Twitter feed. (Contrast that to the fact that NYU Langone Medical Center's Twitter feed, at least the one I found.)

The city has warned about this before. In this 2003 report, after a major blackout, the city said: "During the power outage, hospitals and nursing homes relied on emergency generators to maintain essential health care. However, a prominent trade association, which represents both public and private hospitals and continuing care facilities within the City and surrounding areas, reported that in some instances, despite prior testing according to applicable State and accreditation standards, generators malfunctioned, experiencing, for example, problems with switches and overheating. Further, only certain functional areas of hospitals are equipped with backup power. Hospitals that depend on steam were unable to sterilize equipment, and were forced to rely on other hospitals for assistance."

We should have learned by now. My former colleague Sheri Fink wrote an amazing story about Memorial Hospital in New Orleans after Katrina. And the Institute of Medicine also looked at how to respond in disasters.

ShannonGo further back than Katrina. The entire Texas Medical Center (largest in the world) pretty much lost emergency power in June 2001 during Tropical Storm Allison...Go further back than Katrina. The entire Texas Medical Center (largest in the world) pretty much lost emergency power in June 2001 during Tropical Storm Allison. The generators were in the basements, and they flooded. Who is doing the risk assessment for these hospitals?!?more2012-10-30T18:52:31.726Z